EAGAN, MINNESOTA — Thomson Reuters fired longtime legal publishing employee Billie Little in February 2026, shortly after she helped lead an internal committee that warned company management about the potential unlawful use of its investigative tools by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Little has filed suit against the company, arguing her dismissal violated an Oregon law that bars employers from firing whistleblowers.

Little, who had worked at Thomson Reuters for about two decades, was part of a group called the Committee to Restore Trust. The group sent a letter to company management on February 20, 2026, signed by about 170 employees, flagging that ICE could be using Thomson Reuters products unlawfully and asking for greater transparency about the company's oversight of its contracts with the Department of Homeland Security and ICE.

"Instead of addressing our legitimate concerns, they turned toward investigating me. I was instrumental in leading the group. I think that clearly they were trying to chill the activity of workers and that should scare every worker across the country," Little said.

A Thomson Reuters spokesperson responded to the lawsuit in a statement. "We strongly dispute the allegations and intend to robustly defend the case," the spokesperson said.

Thomson Reuters has held contracts worth tens of millions of dollars with ICE in recent years for its data and investigative tools. The company offers a product called CLEAR to law enforcement agencies, including ICE, that aggregates billions of data points on individuals from public and proprietary records and social media. The CLEAR platform includes images from a network of license plate readers. ICE signed a contract with Thomson Reuters in May 2025, valued at nearly $5 million, for license plate reader data to enhance investigations for potential arrest, seizure, and forfeiture. Little's work at the company did not involve the CLEAR product.

A company spokesperson said: "Our tools support investigations into areas of national security and public safety, such as child exploitation, human trafficking, narcotics and weapons trafficking and financial crime. We remain committed to this mission while maintaining strong safeguards that ensure our products and services are used in accordance with our contractual terms and applicable law."

Thomson Reuters company documents from February 2026 state that vehicle registration data should not be used for immigration enforcement. A company description of CLEAR archived by the WayBack Machine stated that the product is not designed for mass illegal immigration inquiries or for deporting non-criminal undocumented persons and non-citizens.